KXXX, known as “X-100”, occupied the 99.7 spot on the Bay Area FM dial between 1998 and 1991.
The station succeeded KYUU, which had enjoyed a strong run from the late 1970s into the mid 1980s with a format focusing on “adult contemporary” music. By the time General Electric’s NBC division decided to sell off its portfolio of radio and TV stations, KYUU had shifted toward a Top 40 sound and had even stopped airing its call letters, referring to itself as simply “99.7 FM”.
When Emmis Broadcasting of Indianapolis purchased the station in 1988, the transition was complete. Newly-installed general manager Jim Smith told the San Francisco Chronicle that X-100 would be “mainstream Top 40–more hits, less dancing.” Emmis and Clark cleaned house, with morning man Don Bleu the only holdover disc jockey from KYUU.
Bleu’s X-100 tenure didn’t last long; he would be rlet go in 1989. Only a few months after Bleu’s dismissal, word surfaced that Emmis was offering KXXX for sale. It took about a year for Emmis to find a buyer, and in early 1991, the Federal Communications Commission approved the sale of KXXX to developer Peter Bedford’s Bedford Broadcasting Company. The Lafayette-based company owned stations in Hawaii and paid a reported $18.5 million for KXXX.
Bedford was already in the process of purchasing KFRC, and when that deal closed, KXXX became KFRC-FM and shifted to an oldies format.
In the brief history of X-100, a few stories stand out. One was the edgy billboard campaign carrying the phrase “Hits Happen”. Perhaps predictably, vandals changed the signs to the vulgar vernacular “S— Happens”.
There was the heavily-hyped marathon by disc jockey Dewayne “Super Snake” Weaver, who pledged to stay on the air for 108 consecutive hours until the World Series-bound San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s each clinched their respective playoff slots. To cut to the chase, it later became clear that Weaver had taken more than a few breaks, but had pre-recorded elements to make it sound as though he was in the studio non-stop.
And there was the story of the call letters. Station owners were often loath to surrender a well-known set of call letters, worrying that a competitor might recycle them in the same market. So when Emmis decided it wanted KXXX, it came up against the fact that an AM station in Liberal, KS already had those calls. It was not a sure thing that the FCC would authorize the same call letters on an AM and an FM in two markets half a country apart.
Negotiations ensued, and Emmis was able to “bury” KYUU in Kansas, throwing some cash into the deal to liberate the KXXX call letters for San Francisco, for a while anyway. As fate would have it, after KXXX became KFRC-FM, the KXXX call letters returned to Kansas. They’ve been heard for many years emanating from Colby, KS on the flagship station of the Kansas Farm and Ranch Radio Network.
